Through the storm & into the desert

Through the storm & into the desert

I am not quite retired yet but am on a pre-retirement adventure to learn more about this lifestyle I’m planning, and to connect up with others. I left Coarsegold CA Tuesday morning in the pouring rain & am currently relaxing in the most gorgeous weather in Quartzite AZ at a gathering of full-timers called “Rubber Tramp Rendezvous”.

Driving for two days was an exercise in what i will call an “open focus” state. This is, at least for me, different than a meditative state because it is completely functional. Without taking attention away from the road, the gas guage, etc., there is an opening or a broadening of attention both horizontally and vertically, and temporally too. The attention encompasses the horizon in every direction: the distant hills, the road ahead & behind, the expanse of land being moved through. Connecting with the vertical connection feels like paying attention both to the sphere of the earth below & plugging into divine connection in an upward direction.

There is little distraction driving except internal. It became more and more obvious that the constant narrowing of attention that has comprised my non meditative life is simply a well established habit.

A little poetic expression from day one:

Into the storm

One hundred miles Straight as an arrow Through the heart of American agriculture While a soaking rain Feeds the coming crops The orange groves The rich earth.

Then up… Into the clouds Through the Tehachapi hills To the brown and barren Mojave. Coming like a harbinger of spring Bringing the first rain to parched ground That barely remembers how to absorb This nourishing liquid. The raindrops welcome but unfamiliar To the brown landscape, The sprinkling of Joshua trees The bare mountains Commanding the horizon.

Across the desert then, with its stark beauty. With puddles on the ground and clearing skies.

Meeting an old friend at Lake Havasu and caravaning to Quartzite for a spectacular first evening’s sunset. I will stay here for several days until the power runs out in my Scamp. It is time for learning and resting…

The Caterpillar, the Butterfly & the World

Imagine for a moment that you are a caterpillar who is finishing up with caterpillar life. You have instinctively wrapped yourself in a cocoon. Your old life is dissolving. Nothing works anymore. It looks like chaos. It looks like the end.

Then, in your imagination, put yourself in the position of being the butterfly coming into being as the caterpillar finishes. It feels to you now like the caterpillar has recycled himself to support your new life. Caterpillar chaos and death (?) seems to be allowing room for and actually supporting your becoming something else – something quite new.

One thing we can do in these times of upheaval and turmoil in the world, is to consider this metaphor to begin to look at situations through the eyes of the butterfly. These new eyes focus not so much on the destruction of the old but see most clearly the arising of a new possibility for humankind.